Do Giant Monsters get the Archvillian Debuff Resistance?

[marcussmythe]

Kraken does not appear to.  Neither do Lusca’s Tentacles.

 

I want to say that Kronos (the ambush version, not the missions version) -did-, but I was somewhat busy at the time and failed to take notes.  The Mission version was classed Monster rather than Giant Monster and did not appear to boast AV resistances, though it seemed to have -some debuff resist.

 

I ask as ‘Can I solo X?’ is a hobby of mine.  Dimagnetic’s -regen is meaningless as against AVs... when i tested it, it appeared to be 10% (rather than 15% as per the wiki) and stack to 5 (rather than 4).  This was trivialized by AV debuff resistance, but may have value as against GMs if they do not recieve the same debuff resistance.

 

Envenomed Daggers are a useful stopgap as against AVs, but require going all in, eating up much casting time due to the need to stack the debuff.

 

Its also possible that various monster and giant monster class entities have some, varying, debuff resistances and that is why I cannot get consistent numbers.

[Trickshooter]

They are supposed to, but it is not inherent to their Rank; it has to be manually added to their powers, just like with AVs. It should be mostly the same, except that the GM version grants 100 mag protection.

 

I haven't verified it works like this, but even though GMs always con purple and have no visible level, I believe they do actually have a hidden level that their Resistance might scale to.

[marcussmythe]

They are supposed to, but it is not inherent to their Rank; it has to be manually added to their powers, just like with AVs. It should be mostly the same, except that the GM version grants 100 mag protection.

 

I haven't verified it works like this, but even though GMs always con purple and have no visible level, I believe they do actually have a hidden level that their Resistance might scale to.

 

They are supposed to, but it is not inherent to their Rank; it has to be manually added to their powers, just like with AVs. It should be mostly the same, except that the GM version grants 100 mag protection.

 

I haven't verified it works like this, but even though GMs always con purple and have no visible level, I believe they do actually have a hidden level that their Resistance might scale to.

 

THANK YOU.  This would go a long way to explain my observations.  If GMs are assigned AV Resistance, but at some scale based on an invisible level for the Giant Monster, it would explain why Kraken was sporting -10% Regen (rather than -15%) from the Diamagnetic Debuff, assuming Kraken is coded as about lvl 13.  It would also explain why I saw ambush spawn Kronos as having 'full AV resistance' or something near it to debuffs when I was using Envenomed Daggers on it -if Kronos is coded at about 'Level Equivalent 50', then it would have the 65% debuff resistance of a lvl 50 AV.

 

I will also anticipate that Giant Monsters and Monsters have about the same hit points, but Giant Monsters have the 'no level/level adjustment' code, and have AV resistances, while Monsters have fixed levels, and do not carry AV resistances.

 

Assuming the above is the case, then the -Regen in Diamagentic will have no significant value against most GMs or AVs, but may be of great value against Monsters.

 

This does open the question as to which proc if any is of value - the stacking HP debuff is capped at 4000 HP, a loss a GM or AV wont notice (The HP Debuff Proc probably shows better on Pylons than it does on AVs - Pylons probably lack the AV resistance).  The -2.5% Resist Proc is worth a total of 10% Resist Debuff - which is good for a straight 10% more damage.  The typical AV has (according to the wiki) 28K HP at lvl 50 - such that -4000 Max HP would lower its effective HP to 24K, effectively increasing both our damage against it and its regeneration by about 16%. 

 

Against a Giant Monster class enemy, with ~70K HP, the -4000 HP is similar in effect to a 5% Debuff to both enemy resist and enemy regeneration.

 

The -RES proc tops out at 10%, but will be difficult to stack.. and -RES is easier to come across than -Regen.

 

Additional damage is always additional damage, but the DOT procs probably do not match the value given by the HP debuff as against GM class enemies.  They certainly dont match its value as against AV level enemies.

 

Conclusions: 

 

-Regen sources other than very, very large ones (Defender Primary, Corruptor/Mastermind/Controller Secondary, Beam Rifle, Envenomed Dagger) have no significant impact against AVs or (high end) GMs.  Lesser Regen Debuffs may have value against low level hard targets (low level AVs and GMs), or against things like Pylons that (presumably!) lack AV resists.

 

Envenomed Daggers are powerful and broadly available, and assuming AV Resist Scaling and GM HP, worth about 1300 damage in regen that did not happen - though make sure your still doing damage and dont let the debuff fall off.  You will still be better off with a -Regen set above, where you cna keep the debuff up without interrupting your DPS cycle.  AVs will be SIGNIFICANTLY easier to deal with than GMs, due to the much lower HP (and thus much lower regen)

 

The Interface -HP Incarnate ability will likely remain the 'least bad' choice for help in dropping very hard targets, but its contribution is limited against GMs (much larger against AVs - but if you are even considering soloing GMs, AVs have long since stopped impressing you) 

 

A -Regen interface may help against things like Kraken or Pylons, but as noted before - if your concern is Ambush Kronos, Kraken, Pylons, and lvl 13 Archvillians stopped being a problem long ago.

 

External -Regen sources that do not consume activation cycles (Certain lore pets) may have a special value here.  I am told the Longbow Robots have a -Regen component in their attacks and prefer to attack from range (I have not tested this).  Buff providing pets are also an option, but even the very large buffs from things like the Knives of Artemis will likely expire before the largest of GMs go down.

 

As always, a panoply of temporary powers, from minor (Call for Backup!) through serious (Shivan Shards) to slightly obsessive (10 Million INF summon Heroes form PtW) exist, and may make the difference.  If anyone looks at you funny for using a temp power to take down a Giant Monster, point out that earning power by doing missions or earning (and paying) influence to a vendor is no different than earning power by doing missions (for XP/Shards/etc) or earning (and paying) influence to the AH.  Or just make a ~phhhbbt~ sound at them and have calamari sushi.

 

[Silverado]

GMs do have a level that generally corresponds to the zone they spawn in. Kraken and Paladin are level 10ish, Babbage (Boomtown) is 20ish, Lusca is 25ish, Jurassik is 40ish, Kronos is 50ish

 

They do get the AV debuff resistances, but since the resistances scale with level, and most GMs are low level, they get low resistances.